Levi Davis was born in Oxford, Mass.,
Jan. 8, 1782. Was a lineal descendant of the sixth generation from ancestor
who emigrated from Wales. He married Mary Spurr, a native of Canton, Mass.,
born Aug. 11, 1782. While a resident of Massachusetts he carried on farming
in Charlestown. The children born them were Redmond s., now a resident
of Greenwood, George, who died at the age of four years, and Mrs. Alexander
H. Stephens, for many years a resident of Greenwood, who died in September,
1866.

In 1815, the family removed to Columbus,
Chenango Co., N. Y., and remained one year, thence to Dryden, Tompkins
Co., where they resided till 1825, and then came to Greenwood (then Troupsburgh),
this county, and settled, building a log house on the present site of the
Ward Hotel. The incidents of a pioneer life—settling in the wilderness,
the necessary economy to support a family, the struggles with poverty and
privation in a new country—were all met by this family. His first purchase
was 144 acres of land, to which he made additions subsequently of several
hundred acres, and during his life had in his possession considerable real
estate. He was an industrious, thorough-going business man, and possessed
characteristic integrity in all his business relations. He was interested
in the improvements of the town, and in all local matters. He was the first
to establish trade at Greenwood, and commenced in a small way to supply
the settlers with the necessaries of life, and from the time of his first
settlement here until the present time a mercantile business has been carried
on by the Davis family, it now being in the name of John Davis & Co.

The other children are Levi, born
in Columbus, Chenanango Co., N. Y., and John Davis, born in the town of
Dryden, Tompkins Co. He also, from the time of his settlement, for many
years kept a public-house in the log house first built when he settled
here, and some forty years ago built the Ward House as it now is except
the third story. He was also engaged for some thirty years, more or less,
in the lumber business. In politics he was a Whig and was the first supervisor
of the town of Greenwood after its erection, and held the office some two
years subsequently. He was the first postmaster of Greenwood, and officiated
in that capacity some twenty-five years following the establishment of
the office.

His wife was known as a woman of great
sympathy for the needy; was truly a helpmeet, fulfilling all the duties
pertaining to a wife and mother, and did her part well, training her children
in all that makes true manhood and womanhood. She died July 9, 1854, remembered
for her many virtues. He survived her nine years, and died July 9, 1863.

*The above information was obtained from
the History of Steuben County, New York, Clayton (1879).